‘Mayhem’ Submits Sakuraba at Dream 16

Jason
“Mayhem” Miller lived up to his vow, as he became the first man
in more than 14 years to submit Japanese icon Kazushi
Sakuraba at Dream 16
on Saturday at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan. Sakuraba -- who
had not asked out of a fight since a July 1996 encounter with
Kimo
Leopoldo -- met his demise inside an arm-triangle choke 2:09
into round one, the crowd looking on in stunned silence.

Miller sprawled on Sakuraba, smacked around the Pride Fighting
Championships veteran with right hands from half guard and moved
into position for the finish. With the choke locked in, Miller
passed to the side and solicited the tapout from the 41-year-old
Sakuraba, who has lost four of his past six fights. The choke will
get the headlines, but Miller’s ground-and-pound assault on
Sakuraba was something to behold.

Meanwhile, Gegard
Mousasi captured the Dream light heavyweight championship with
his first-round submission victory over Tatsuya
Mizuno. The end came at the 6:10 mark of the first round, as
the gifted Armenian cinched a rear-naked choke for the tapout.

A winner in 17 of his past 18 bouts, Mousasi took longer than
expected to dispatch Mizuno but got the job done. The 25-year-old
mounted Mizuno, attacked with punches and forced him to go belly
down a little more than midway through the first period. The choke
and the submission followed soon after. Mousasi, who once held
Dream’s middleweight crown, has rebounded nicely from his unanimous
decision defeat to Muhammed
"King Mo" Lawal in April, having rattled off back-to-back
victories.

In a non-title affair, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki
outpointed Marcus
Aurelio en route to a rather pedestrian unanimous decision. The
world-ranked “Tobikan Judan” trapped Aurelio twice in a leg
triangle and had the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt bleeding by the
end of their one-sided affair.

Finally, world-ranked featherweight Michihiro
Omigawa kept up his resurgence at 145 pounds, as he submitted
Cole
Escovedo with an inverted armbar 2:30 into the first round. A
Hidehiko
Yoshida protégé, the 34-year-old Omigawa has won eight of his
last nine fights. Escovedo had never before been submitted.